Title:

Best boat hull material

Problem Scenario:

Broad Question:

What materials build a boat hull?

Specific Question:

Does the material effect the amount of drag?

Hypothesis:

Plastic will create the least amount of drag.

Graph of Hypothesis

Variables

Independent Variable:

material

Dependent Variable:

Drag of a boat

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Boat hull all have same dimensions.

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

Newton

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General Plan

In my experiment I'm going to make four equal size boat hulls and see the which material has the the least amount of drag. then i will conduct my test four times with each hull.

Potential Problems And Solutions

a potential problem would be that one of the hull's falls apart.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

Might accidentally be cut making hull's

Experimental Design

controlled, manipulated experiment because I will be doing it in a simple lab not something that is really complicated and high tech. Also i'll be using around the class room supply's plus a couple of things i bot at the store all of them are crude materials.
(add the correct headings from the experimental design page before beginning)

Resources and Budget Table

1.) Force Censor:Littlefield:free
2.) Wood:Home Depot: $3.25
3.) plastic:Home Depot: $19.98
4.) Rubber: Home Depot: $1.98
5.) Sheet Metal: Home Depot: $7.47

Data Table

Time Line?

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Background Research

My project will be testing the parasitic drag which is the force created by a three dimensional object crossing over a liquid. Another part of parasitic is skin fraction which is when the skin or surface of the object comes into contact with a fluid. theoretically the more velocity or the faster it goes the more the drag will be. The most important factor in measuring the drag force is the general shape of the object. using that information we know that if it has a sleeker design it will have minimum drag. And if it has a bulkier build it will have a lot more drag than the sleeker design. but it can't be to slim because it needs enough weight to be balanced.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_%28physics%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitic_drag

Detailed Procedure

1.) I will build three boat hulls of the same size and dimensions.
2.) then I will conduct a test to tell the drag force(newtons) by putting the one hull in a tub of water and attach it to a force detector and make waves, then you repeat for each hull 3-4 times.
4.) then after i do the actual experiment i will collect the data

Diagram

Photo List

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Results

All Raw Data

Material: Trial 1: Trial 2: Trial 3:
Metal 16.2 17 17.8
Plastic 18 24 24
Wood 20 21 25.1

Graphs

Photos

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Data Analysis

This data shows that metal is the best and creates the least amount of drag and wood and plastic cause a lot more drag.

Conclusion

From the data i have collected i have answered my research question and the answer is yes the material does effect the amount of drag. the material that has the least amount of drag is metal it only creates .18 newtons. While all of the other materials (wood and plastic) have around .25 newtons of force.

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Discussion

Even though my experiment was a success in answering my question there are many things i could do different. for one i could have done differently is i could have made a more efficient pulley system to take more accurate data. Also i could have used better boats that are almost exactly the same shape and size and i could have created a more efficient course to test on. through all the tests i have been able to answer me research question the answer was it does matter on the material for the amount of drag force created. This experiment could be helpful through out the community and world by making more efficient boats and that could bring lots of advances in aquatic technology. The only problems i had while collecting my data was when i did my first trial didn't go the full 10 seconds but it collected enough data that I was able to make the graph properly and be able to answer my research question.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

Benefit to the community is that we could figure out which material creates the least amount of drag and from that we could design a more efficient boat hull. and with that could come advances for aquatic technologies with could help advance submarine technology and other machines.

Abstracted

In the beginning of my project I made my specific question is "Does the material effect the amount of drag?". My hypothesis was that plastic would have the least amount of drag out of the three materials which were plastic, wood, and metal. The background research that I did was I researched the different kinds of drag force that relate to my experiment. For my project I tested it by taking a long slender cylinder planter pot and filled it with water and stacked books next to it in equal size. Then I put a force detector across the stacks of books and attached each of the boats with a piece of a string and at the end of the string and weight and trialed each material three times. Then once I was done with that I made each one into a graph and figured out that metal is the best. The results for the experiment was that metal had .18 newtons and both of the others materials had .25 newtons or more. In my conclusion I just went over how Metal had the least amount of drag and how this experiment benefits society and science. And finally in my discussion I basically just went over everything i did in my experiment and answered my specific question and my hypothesis.